Major conferences muddle through down year

I wrote a post earlier this season touching on the current state of SEC men's basketball: It's not good, to say the least.

As we move toward next weekend' major conference tournaments, ESPN's Joe Lunardi projects three league teams will receive NCAA bids (Florida, Missouri and Tennessee). CBS' Jerry Palm adds Kentucky to that trio.

Only Florida will find itself close to the top line. Tennessee and Kentucky are right on the bubble, and a couple of late losses could easily knock them out of the field.

The SEC certainly isn't the only down league this season. Things aren't great in the ACC, either. It could well end up with four teams in the tournament: Duke, Miami, North Carolina and N.C. State.

There has been a lot of talk this year about why several of the power conferences are in down cycles.

It's true the one-and-done rule that requires high school players to enter the NBA draft a year after they graduate has had an adverse effect on some teams. But I don't think that explains the lack of depth in the SEC and ACC.

Most schools in those leagues aren't relying on freshman superstars to lead them for a season and move on to the professional ranks. I'd say it's mostly a coincidence that quite a few big name schools are in rebuilding mode at the same time.

And it's not as if other schools aren't stepping in to fill the void. The Atlantic 10 and Mountain West are having great seasons. The Big Ten is loaded and the Pac-12 has improved after several lackluster years.

We should be in for an exciting NCAA tournament, as long as you can live without watching a ton of power schools from the Southeast play for the title.